Structural Engineering

Structural design incorporates all elements of the building form. It encourages creativity and requires integration of aesthetic design, functionality, constructability and commerciality. Providing structures that resist imposed loads and perform appropriately for their intended use is fundamental. The challenge of structural engineering is to provide the right solution to projects in an economical way without compromise.

Many specialist structures are required to be blast resistant in the case of an explosion. Typical examples include buildings in close proximity to large petrochemical facilities, offshore facilities and high security risk infrastructure. Due to the short nature of a blast event, materials and structures behave differently compared to longer duration loads such as wind and gravity and require a specialised design approach. Pritchard Francis have the expertise in designing new or upgraded structures for a range of blast pressures up to 270kPa. Materials used in blast resistant structures have included steel, concrete and masonry.

The following youtube link allows you to view an example of the response of a steel framed building subject to a blast load. In the model the blast event lasts for 0.15 seconds, the model shows how the building deflects over a 0.5 second period.